


Soldiers of Purgatory

by deanbennylife (kams_log)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Army, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soldier Benny, Soldier Dean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 04:34:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3715228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kams_log/pseuds/deanbennylife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They met in Purgatory. Neither of them ever expected to end up in paradise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soldiers of Purgatory

**Author's Note:**

> Needed some army deanbenny recently. I apologize for any mistakes, I typed this up on my phone. 
> 
> Also, I don't come from a military or army background. Let's just call this a fictional universe where Supernatural and modern day find a way to collide.
> 
> I hope you guys like it!

They'd met in hell. The other soldiers called it purgatory, the place where rules didn't count and it was killed or be killed. It was hardly war. Every time a soldier went in it was kill or be killed. And that's where they'd met. 

They'd both signed up for the army. They knew the risks. But when they met it was hardly under good circumstances. It wasn't the stuff of romance or what they'd find in a cheesy rom-com. Instead it was blood and guts and dying screams of friends and enemies. 

Dean had been pinned. He still had nightmares about it sometimes. He'd run out of bullets and lost his weapon in the fire fight. An enemy combatant somehow got the better of him and had hands around his throat before Benny came in swinging with a blade he'd found under rubble. The head went rolling, and it was love at first sight.

That's what they liked to tell people anyway. It was easier than talking about the months of discomfort. How Dean hated how the blood never seemed to truly wash off his skin or how sometimes the things they saw didn't even look like people. Sometimes he looked around at his own teammates and didn't see much better. They'd all been reduced to monsters, fighting for something none of them could really remember. Justice? Peace? Vengeance maybe? It probably didn't look like this anywhere else. Only in purgatory did monsters and men become one and the same.

Benny helped. He was calm, forgiving, always moving forward and centering Dean in the harder moments. It was easy to lose oneself in that place. Benny helped Dean remind himself of his humanity, and let him unleash when the timing was right. It took months, but in time, they'd built a solid friendship. There was no one else Dean trusted quite like Benny. And Benny felt the same. 

So after their first tour together, it felt natural as breathing to move in together. Benny was from Louisiana. Sometimes late at night he'd tell Dean about the hot summers where he'd work at the diner with his family, and how he'd always dreamed of taking over the business when he graduated high school. But after his long term girlfriend Andrea's death, he couldn't bear staying at home. Benny was on his second tour when Dean showed up. 

Dean introduced Benny to his family after they'd been together for a couple months. They didn't call it dating. They didn't do things like that. They ate together, lived together, sometimes went to events and parties together, but nothing like picnics or five star restaurants. Dean had to admit they could get pretty damn romantic from time to time. Sure, they were boyfriends. But the way Sam would grin and ask about their dating life made Dean determined never to call it that. Benny found the entire thing amusing and did nothing to help.

Their second tour together was easier. It wasn't purgatory, a blessing from whatever God must have been looking out for them. They made it through without a hitch, but there had been one nearly nasty call that had Dean trembling for a week. He kept Benny a little closer after that. 

Dean's second tour was his last. But Benny had one more. A fourth, final round. They were reassured it would be nothing like purgatory, and it was the only reason Dean agreed on Benny going. Benny left with a kiss on his lips and a ring on Dean's finger. 

Dean joined SWAT. With his credentials, he was Captain of his own team in no time at all. Benny sent him letters and Dean read them every night. 

" _This ol' place is boring as hell without you. Why'd you have to leave your ass back home? My bed's cold._ "

" _Remember that time Sam's barbeque lit a fuse? Smells like that over here. Tell me he got removed from burger duty._ " 

Dean would reply every week. 

" _Jess never let him live it down. Dad's on the grill now. Hasn't let us down yet._ "

" _Your bed's cold? Maybe you should have thought of that before you left. You better keep your ass warm for me when you get back. I don't let chilly bodies in my bed, you got it?_ "

Dean distinctly remembered their tours being shorter when they were together. Days felt too long with Benny gone. Dean caught himself looking at his ring too often at work. His team would tease him and he'd let them. 

They were writing to each other. Benny was alive. That was all Dean could really ask for.

Until one day as he was driving the Impala. It'd been a long day. Too long, but Dean was looking forward to getting home and checking his mail as he usually did, when the radio stopped playing his hits to give an update on the battle overseas. 

A group of soldiers had stormed a building only to walk over a trap that blew twelve of them sky high. The attack sounded close to Benny's area. 

Dean nearly wrecked his baby that day. He barely made it home in one piece.

" _Heard the worst thing on the radio today. If I get a man at my door tomorrow telling me you're gone I'm gonna resurrect you and end you myself. You better be alive you dick._ "

No one came to his door. But the reply came later than he wanted.

" _I'm alive. Was well outside the blast radius, but it was ugly. Lost a lot of good people. I'm sorry Dean. But I'm not gonna deny I'm glad you're not here. Not sure what I would've done if that'd been you in there._ "

Dean replied immediately, " _Get your ass home. You have a man sick and tired of waiting to marry you already._ " 

Benny's tour ended a month later. Dean was waiting for him in the terminal and spotted his man the moment he was through the gateway. There was no force on earth capable of keeping Dean back at that point. 

They were aware some people were staring. Some gave awed and happy understanding glances, others looked downright confused or embarrassed for watching. But Dean didn't care one bit and devoured his fiance in a hug to end all hugs, and the laugh that rumbled out of Benny's chest was music to his ears.

"You are never leaving again."

"Yes sir." 

Times weren't always peaceful. They both carried their own damage from their duties overseas, and neither were the best with their emotions. But they knew how to pull through. 

The wedding was beautiful. Both of them may have denied crying at the altar, but Sam wasn't shy to admit his own tears. Jess and Bobby congratulated them, John nodded his approval. Dean traded embarrassing stories with Benny's niece and other relatives, and the honeymoon went down in Winchester-Lafitte history. (Not all of it entirely legal, but definitely romantic, Dean would always defend.)

They met in purgatory. Neither of them ever expected to end up in paradise.

**Author's Note:**

> my deanbenny blog: deanbennylife.tumblr.com


End file.
